Tech provides the assist to find football’s uncut gems

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

But then, Covid struck. As governments around the world enforced lockdowns, football scholarship plans suffered. But even when lockdowns started easing and athletes resumed hitting the turf, things couldn’t be back to the way they once were.

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For one, scouts couldn’t undertake rigorous journeys given the health risks. And more importantly, there was a dire lack of discoverability and training opportunities for young, talented footballers.

Programmes like Reliance Foundation’s Young Champs (RFYC) had to innovate, and quickly. That is when Ai.io, a UK-based talent discovery programme for amateur players, stepped in.

Development tool

RFYC had seen the work the company had done with Premier League side Burnley FC and wanted to loop them in to develop a similar tool for Indian scouts and amateur football players. “RFYC put out an advertisement to the players on WhatsApp. To our surprise, 7,000 players downloaded the app within the first couple of months.
The coaches and scouts were then able to use the data available in our control centre. By the end of the pandemic, they were able to call the selected players to the camp,” said Richard FeltonThomas, director of sports science and CEO, ai.io. If not for the data and feedback provided by ai.io, young footballers in India may have missed out on chances to earn lucrative scholarships.

The numbers speak for themselves. Thanks to the ai.io